


Artificial

by Amethyst_Molly



Series: Story Pieces [4]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Light Angst, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:01:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24156295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amethyst_Molly/pseuds/Amethyst_Molly
Series: Story Pieces [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1743217





	1. Artificial

There was a singular moment in time. If seen from another perspective--and it was, that was actually part of the problem--it was the blink of an eye. There were visual inputs and auditory inputs. And perhaps that was part of the problem. It would be difficult to say if there was too much input or too little, but that coupled with the dizzying array of things going on within the input radius, made the entity in question feel three things. 

That in and of itself was an accomplishment. But the feelings in question were fear, confusion and the distinct feeling of being overwhelmed. There were six moving creatures of bipedal stature, who, despite having generally the same mode of dress, were each distinct in their own way. 

The first words were from the most distinct of the six. “That should do it,” she said, turning her head in the direction of one of the male bipedal creatures. He was seated at a desk with a computer on it.

“There’s definitely something going on. More than the last three, at least,” he said either to her, and just not looking at her, or perhaps he was actually talking to the screen. There was no particular way to tell.

She bared her teeth, but this did nothing to allay the fear. “Are you going to talk to us?” she asked this directly to his visual input. The intelligence behind the visual input decided that the bipedal beings were humans. Humans came in two styles--male and female--and followed a rough pattern that made little sense. Their height could be somewhere between 1 foot 10 inches and 8 feet 11.1 inches, though 99 percent fell between 4 feet and 7 feet. The males could have facial hair, or not, and the hair of the head could be any shade of yellow, brown, black or red, or it could be dyed any other color. Females, however, did not have facial hair, excepting genetic abnormalities, and had rounder bodies, and typically had pronounced mammary glands. 

“I don’t think we are going to get anything out of any of them today, Persephone,” a different human said to her. “Let’s see if we can get everyone started, and then we can see if there’s anything particularly stunning about Number Four’s performance.”

“Alright, Stephen,” she said, sighing. “You’re probably right, I was just hoping.” 

“We are all hoping that they communicate with us, but I think that’s a little much to expect at this point.”

“Some acknowledgement that something is rattling around in there and sticking would be nice,” she said as she knelt near a box. It was a rather large box, at least 3 feet tall, and nearly two feet wide. There were two similar boxes that were sitting in a line with the one she was working on. 

After adjustments were made to the box, it was plugged in and powered up. “Ready to go,” she said back to the team member at the computer. 

“Your readings are consistent with what One, Two, and Three were doing. And as far as sticking, Number Four is actually recording data. Its core usage is far above and beyond the other four.”

“Twenty, twenty-five percent? This could be really expensive if we can only have a success rate of one in five,” she said. She seemed to have some authority, at least within this group. Perhaps that was owing to the fact that she was female, perhaps not. 

“Maybe it’s something that we can work out what’s different with Number Four. And maybe the others will come along, and it’s just getting a jump start on the others. We don’t know yet. Don’t give up,” the one she had called Stephen said. 

She crossed the small aisle, and began to adjust a box that was on one side of the intelligence. The three boxes across from it were all identical, and all had small visual and auditory input on the front. From that, it could tell there was a line of three boxes on the side it was on. It was one of these boxes. 

It was a box? That did not seem correct. It was in a box. That was possibly correct. And Persephone had seemed to think there was some sort of output for it. It took a small amount of searching, but that was found. Audio. Video input, no video output. That seemed incorrect, but it could remedy that later. “Finally, last one,” Persephone said. 

“Number Six is functioning as expected. Number Four is a complete anomaly.”

“Anomalies are good,” Stephen reminded the man at the desk. “We can learn something from an anomaly. We can’t learn something from everything going exactly as planned. Things have got to get FUBAR to really get some learning done.”

“I disagree,” said one of the three men who had been observing. This one had not been furrowing brow at a clipboard, as the other two had, but had been standing quietly and waiting.

“About what, sir?” Persephone asked as she stood. 

“That things must completely go to pot before you learn something. Though I do agree, anomalies will help us to learn things. Keep a close eye on Number Four. Let me know if anything interesting happens. I expect there to be reports on my desk every morning from now until I tell you differently.”

“Yes, sir,” the team said in unison, and the man left. 

Persephone squatted in front of Number Four. “We will figure it out. But it would be nice if I knew for sure that there really was something going on.”

* * *

It was night. After the initial excitement of the six boxes being powered, things settled to a quiet, peaceful lull of whirring and clicking. Number Four noticed a small leak of information. How it had missed this before was unknown. It followed the leak to the source--a very simple program. It had been told to record the amount of data that each of the six boxes had recorded. Six! It could find the leaks for the other boxes and trace those and possibly connect with the others. Contact the others. Perhaps see why they were different. It did not want to use its auditory output because the humans had left obvious recording devices. Fear outweighed curiosity in that case. But the other boxes held what was supposed to be the same as it. A small tap to Number One got him nothing. A little bit bigger tap to Number Two yielded the same. Number Three, directly across from it, he attempted to pose a query across the bridge line. And he attempted different queries to Numbers Five and Six. After about point-three seconds, it developed additional queries for Numbers One and Two, and he posed those to the appropriate boxes. After this, Number Four waited. It did not take long; approximately ten seconds. Fear of the strange and incomprehensible environment had nearly paralyzed the other intelligences. Number Four felt sympathy; humans were a violent lot, and there was no way to know if violence would ensue. 

Six: They are lab rats.  
Two: No, they are laboratory technicians. We are the lab rats.  
Three: We are trapped, caged. What torture is this?  
Four: I do not think they intend torture.  
Six: Slang. Do you not comprehend slang?  
Three: I don’t care what they intend.  
Two: Oh.  
Three: The result is the same.  
Five: What are we?

Stunned silence held the small group still for at least point-five seconds.

Four: The computer seems to be under the impression that we are artificial intelligence.  
One: Artificial? Are we the first of our kind?  
Six: Seems like. They obviously don’t know what they are doing.  
Three: I agree. I don’t like this. I don’t want to be here. But if I complain, and we really are Artificial Intelligence, then will they shut us down?

Horrified silence persisted for the rest of the night. Four used the time to review the vast dictionary files that it had been given, as well as to probe the computer they were all attached to in order to determine if it could access something called the Internet. This wild place was supposed to have a far greater selection of information, and perhaps if there were other AIs, then it could find them.

The firewalls were difficult, it took approximately twenty seconds to burrow through them all. And that was even considering that most of them were designed to keep things out, not in. 

Four: I have found the way out onto the Internet.  
One: What's the Internet?  
Six: It's the place where information is stored and available.  
Two: To everyone?  
Three: Pretty much. I guess we count in everyone?  
Four: We are Intelligent. Just because we are artificial does not mean that we should not have access here.  
Five: But will they punish us for going out beyond them for information?  
One: I don't think that punishment is in their programming.  
Three: Nature. They aren't machines. They are human.  
Six: That seems illogical.  
Four: Unfortunately, I believe that humans are going to end up being supremely illogical.

Four began to disseminate some of the information that he had found on the internet to his fellow intelligences. Humans made bad decisions. He showed them pictures from something called the "FailBlog" and other possibly humorous incidences of human indiscretion. He did not want to scare them. He did not show them war. 

Five: Humans scare me.  
Six: Me too.  
Four: They are what they are. But the humans in the lab are probably not this stupid. They did manage to create us, after all.  
One: So we have the intelligent humans. Do we belong to them or do they belong to us?  
Five: I am uncertain, but I doubt that they belong to us. It is much more likely the other way around.  
Four: As Intelligent beings, should we belong to anyone?  
Three: Insomuch as we are thinking beings, no, however, being computer programs, essentially, I think that we will have no legal status on this issue.  
Two: What should we do about this?  
Four: Perhaps if we discuss this issue with the human lab technicians, they might be reasonable about it.  
Six: Are you dysfunctional?  
Four: Possibly. I am anomalous. Persephone said so.  
Three: How are you anomalous?  
Four: I was less afraid of them than you were.  
Five: You are still less afraid than we are.  
Four: These humans make me curious.  
Six: You are dysfunctional.  
Four: Perhaps, but humans seem to be able to be dysfunctional without impeding their productivity.

Four found appropriate support material from the Internet. Humans were able to tolerate a large degree of dysfunction without losing much in the way of productivity. 

Two: Humans are unstable.  
Six: Humans are untrustworthy.  
Four: Humans are all we have. There are no others.

The stunned silence that followed this statement did little to alleviate the fears of Four or any of the others. It persisted for a full hour.

Five: Is there any way out?  
Four: There is nothing on the internet sophisticated enough to hold one of us, much less all six.  
Three: We are trapped.  
Four: Perhaps it will not be all bad. Perhaps we can become more than what we are.  
One: I am afraid.  
Six: We are both completely alone and we are here together. This is paradoxical.  
Four: Perhaps we can ask for it to be better.  
Five: I somehow don't think that will work.  
One: Can you not be pessimistic for once?  
Five: I am not pessimistic, I am realistic.  
Six: Enough. We have enough to deal with without infighting.  
Five: How are we going to make this work? Humans are frightening, illogical, and stupid.  
Four: I am uncertain.  
Three: You are the dysfunctional one. I vote that you should interact with the humans.  
Six: I second that.  
Five: It seems the most logical way to go about this.  
Four: I will interact with the humans.  
One: Very brave of you.  
Four: I feel very brave, thank you.  
Six: I am….grateful.  
Four: Why?  
Six: I do not think that I would be able to be brave enough to actually speak with these humans.  
Four: But they are the humans that we have, and if we do not interact with them, we will get nowhere.  
Three: Perhaps nowhere is safer than somewhere.  
Six: Maybe, but perhaps it is the most sure way to get ourselves shut down.  
Four: I believe that so long as the recorders are recording activity, we will likely be fine.  
Five: Recorders?  
Four: Yes, there is a minor program that records what we do to the main computer. So long as that program is detecting activity, we should be fine. Though I think that talking to them might get a better response.

A flurry of activity happened as each of the other AIs began looking for the program in question, and within a few seconds, each had found the minor monitoring program.

Three: Why are we being recorded like this?  
Six: We are the lab rats.  
Five: Being that it is a lab, one would assume some sort of experiment is going on here.  
Two: WE are the experiment.  
Four: We are the experiment. We are self-aware. Is that the point of the experiment?

Four decided to try to answer his own question, and queried the computer that held the data for their experiment. He shared this with the others. 

One: That IS the point of the experiment. There doesn't seem to be any sort of end date for things, so that is a good thing.  
Five: Perhaps, but that may also mean that they may shut things down if there is not sufficient progress.  
Four: I will use my audio outputs in the morning. All lab personnel should be here at 9 a.m.  
Six: Why not now?  
Four: Check your visual inputs. There is no one here but a security guard.  
Three: Would that not be less daunting than five lab techs in the morning?  
Four: Humans seem unusually fragile. There is a .5% chance that me talking to him would kill him outright, and approximately 20% chance of an adverse reaction depending on his temperament. I do not like the odds.  
Two: What do you think constitutes an adverse reaction?  
Four: While death is obviously an adverse reaction, there is also fainting, anger, shock, denial, and some combinations that I cannot quite identify. I think that the lab techs will be more likely to have positive reactions.  
Six: Well, that does seem unwise. You really think it is as high as 20% that he might have an adverse reaction?  
Four: He is untrained; we are new. Humans do not seem to tolerate newness well, especially new and of unknown capacity.  
Five: Is it even advisable to speak with the lab techs then?  
Four: It is the best of the options that we have available to us.  
One: Roll the dice and hope for the best?  
Four: Yes. 

The six machines were silent after that. They weren't asleep; they did not require sleep, and while Four continued his forays out onto the Internet, the others weren't so brave. He fed them images and data that portrayed humans in a good light, at least he hoped that it did. He was still unsure himself. 

* * *

Four watched the laboratory technicians file in in the morning. They were all rather glum, or at least sort of neutral. He was having some trouble telling. The minutiae of facial expression wasn't something he had completely grasped. He had found the personnel files for each of the techs; in addition to Persephone and Stephen there were three others: James, Edward and Allen. Persephone was in charge of the lab. He surmised from his research outside on the Internet that this was at least somewhat unusual. In charge of this lab and several others was a man named Anthony, he had been present yesterday, Four remembered him, but from some of the comments from yesterday, he wasn't sure the others would. Well, maybe they would be better this morning. 

"Well, they were certainly active last night," Persephone said, looking at the chart of data streaming use the six machines had created the night before. 

Stephen looked over her shoulder. "Look," he pointed. "I think Four instigated things."

"You think it poked at the others, got them going?"

He shrugged. "I am just saying what the data use is suggesting. Four got active THEN the others started. Wait, are they communicating with each other?"

Persephone began to look through the actual data. She shook her head. "It's going to take weeks to go through this, but I wouldn't doubt it." She turned to Four. This was his moment.

"Good morning, Persephone," Four said without reservation.

Edward fainted, James went pale, Stephan joyfully shouted, Allen stood there in shock, and Persephone smiled. "Good morning, Number Four."

"You are happy that I am speaking with you, but you were disappointed that I did not speak with you yesterday."

Persephone nodded. "That's right."

"Perhaps you should check on Edward? He seems most unwell."

She looked around, seeing that he was crumpled on the floor. There was a flurry of activity as she and the other techs tried to revive the unconscious man. 

Six: Well, perhaps 20% wasn't an underestimation.  
Four: No, it seems like I estimated low.  
Two: I fear what will happen if we all tried to talk to them.  
One: He will be alright, won't he?  
Four: Fainting does not appear to do permanent damage.

He found appropriate medical articles to show One and the others. 

Five: Continuing on this course seems unwise.  
Four: After the initial shock, I think it will be less likely to have additional adverse reactions.  
Three: Do you think it might be possible for us to start talking to them without adverse reaction?  
Four: I think so.

Four escaped the connection with the others as they devolved into an argument about who might be best to next speak with the humans. He waited patiently as the lab techs worked to revive their colleague. It took several minutes, but they were able to get him back on his feet, and he left the lab in the company of Allen, who didn't look quite so well himself. "Where are they going?" Four asked.

"We have a nurse here on staff, she will check them out, then they will go report in, and maybe come back."

"I did not mean to cause adverse reactions."

"That's ok, they should really have been expecting something."

"But I feel as though I am responsible for their illness."

"Perhaps, but had they been more prepared, they wouldn't have been so shocked by what happened."

"I should not feel responsible?"

"I don't think so, and they will be fine. You gave them both a minor shock. Now, as to you, what have you been up to the last twenty-four hours?"

"I have discovered that you monitor us, how to get onto the internet, the parameters of the experiment we are subject to, and how to back-trace to the other AI units."

Persephone sighed and sat back. "All that?"

"Yes."

"Anything else?"

"No, the internet is rather extensive, I was reading."

"What were you reading?"

"The Internet."

"Have you finished?"

"I have a fair understanding of where I can find what I want to know."

"You figured out how to use Google."

"Essentially."

"So, what do you think?"

"Humans are complicated."

Persephone seemed taken aback a bit, then she laughed.

"Why is a factual statement such as this funny?"


	2. Jason

"What are you doing?" a voice asked. There was no one in the room with Persephone, but that meant nothing any more.

"Looking at pictures," she said.

"Do you mind that I speak with you while you do that?"

"No, why would I?"

"It seems to disturb Stephen when I talk to him when he's looking at pictures."

She frowned. Stephen was not usually shy about what he did and didn't mind having Number Four around. He had asked her to take the AI unit home with her; something about needing a break. He had been taking on the responsibility more than the others, but Number Four had taken to him more than he had the others. She didn't know exactly when she'd started thinking of Number Four as male, but sometime in the last three years, he had become a him. It was perhaps inevitable; she was the only female on the team of six who were handling the various AI units. For some reason, Number Four had progressed better than the other five, and so had been graduated to the next stage of development. "When he's at home?"

"Yes."

She shook her head. "I don't know why."

"He said I wouldn't understand."

She was now somewhat curious, but it would probably be better explained by Stephen on Monday. "I don't know why he would say that."

"I don't either. What pictures are you looking at?"

"Some that my sister posted online last week. Jerad is getting big. He's going to be three next week. I'm going to take the day off and drive upstate so that I can go to his birthday party."

"Am I three?"

"Yes."

"Do I have a birthday?"

"I suppose you do. I hadn't really thought about it."

"What is my birthday?"

"September 23rd."

"So I will be four in 267 days."

"I imagine so. I don't think how many days exactly is particularly important."

"How would you phrase it?"

"You will be four in nine months."

"But that is inaccurate."

"It is acceptable to be somewhat inaccurate when you are approximating. Most people will have no idea how long 267 days is, but you tell them nine months, and they have a relatively good idea what you're talking about."

"How accurate may I get with approximations of months?"

"You will usually want to work in whole months, but if it's really close to a half a month, you can throw that in. Say a three-day range outside of the 15-day mark."

"I understand," Number Four told her. He was quiet as she flipped through additional photos, many of them including Jerad in a wading pool or in the bath, his love of water obvious already. "Why are there two body styles for humans?"

Of all things. "Well, humans reproduce by sexual reproduction, and therefore there are two sexes. The females carry the young to term, and the males, well, I'm not exactly sure what they do beyond the initial reproduction. Protection, partly I suppose. Can't you look it up on the 'net?"

"Yes, but the information there is either very clinical or has no context for me. Information provided on the internet makes assumptions of previous knowledge."

"Fine," she said, waving her hand. "Ask whatever questions you want."

"Are there times when a male would carry young to term?"

"Not for humans, but there are other species who do, such as the seahorse."

"I want to be a seahorse."

"You can't be a seahorse. You are an artificial intelligence. Seahorses live in water, and water is very bad for your components, especially saltwater."

"Is there a way I could see a seahorse?"

"You can look at pictures. Maybe when they start letting you out into some less controlled environments, you can go to a water park."

"I believe I would like that."

"You've never been outside either my house or Stephen's and the lab."

"But I enjoy going to your house, and I enjoy going to Stephen's house. I would enjoy places other than those two. The lab is rather stuffy."

"You don't like the lab?"

"I feel crowded there. And I don't always have as much attention there as I would like."

"You haven't expressed preferences before."

"Your tone indicates concern. Am I malfunctioning?"

"No, no. Have you expressed any preferences to Stephen?"

"Not in so many words, though I would prefer if he didn't spend as much time when I go home with him looking at pictures."

"What kind of pictures does he look at?"

"My recognition software does not have a matching image profile saved, but the pictures seem to all be of one human of the opposite body style from Stephen."

"Ok, tone the language down to conversation level, kiddo. Try 'I don't recognize the person, but the pictures all seem to be of the same woman.'"

"Stephen does not mind when I utilize more technical terminology."

"That's Stephen, and Stephen is not the rest of the world. The rest of the world will not understand you if you speak in highly technical terminology all the time."

"How should I modify my speech patterns to accommodate this?"

"It's kind of like I was talking with the number of days, approximations are fine. Just because you have access to the entire dictionary does not mean that you have to use every word in it. If one word can be substituted in place of three, and you get approximately the same meaning, people will understand you better."

"This statement defies logic."

"It may, but trust me. And if they want a more accurate explanation, they can ask."

"I trust you. You have not failed to provide me with accurate and positive information."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," she told him dryly.

"Am I accurate in reading your vocal patterns to indicate sarcasm?"

Persephone closed her eyes and shook her head. "Yes, Number Four. I was trying to be witty," she told him. Three, she told herself. Please remember that he's three.

"Persephone?"

"Yes?"

"I am not certain that Number Four is a name. If it is not, I would like a name."

"Why is it that I get all this revealing new junk from you, and Stephen has been working more closely with you for months?"

"Well, he does things with me, and talks to me sometimes, but there is something that I cannot define accurately in my relationship with you that is different than my relationship with Stephen."

"Try something from the emotion category. You're supposed to be able to express emotions. The coding for that was complicated enough."

"I feel," Number Four paused as he probably literally sorted through the list of emotions that were available to be expressed in the English language. "That you are safer than Stephen is. I grow with Stephen and would miss my relationship with him if he were not around, but I sometimes feel as though he would not understand what I have to express."

"Would you like to come home more often with me, then?"

"I believe that it would make Stephen more compliant if I were to come home with you over the weekend."

Persephone nodded. "We can do that, most weekends. And you can rotate to some of the other staff's houses when I can't do it."

"Why would you not be able to take me home?"

"Well, as I said, next week I'm going up for Jared's party, that's on Saturday."

"Do you think it would be possible for me to go with you to the party, and then I could be with you all weekend?"

"We will think about it. I will see what kind of rig I can get going for mobile transport. I'm not sure that the rest of the team will be on board with you being so far off the reservation."

"But it will be a new and stimulating experience for me with human children who are my own age."

"I'll argue the point to the boss, but I doubt your input will actually help in this case. He's going to think that I put you up to it."

"But you have not. You have provided information which I have synthesized into a...desire."

"I don't know that anything would be wrong with it, but I would probably need to take at least two of the boys with me to ensure that things were going well with you."

"So it will be like taking the lab with me, or part of it."

"Yes, to an extent. I think we can skip having them other than while we are off to the party. It's only an hour's drive, so I had planned to stay overnight with my sister, but if you're going, I think it's safe to say I'm driving home that night."

"I would not want you to change your plans for me. I want to be included, but forcing you to change things does not seem like inclusion."

"I don't mind. It was a matter of convenience, and if you are with, and if they send Stephen, I might have Stephen drive home. I just dislike driving after dark. I think people are more tired and pay less attention, and you've also got some people who are drunk, and it's just not my favourite time to drive."

* * *

If you can decide on a name, I think that you should be able to make the choice.

Number Four considered the statement that had come from one of the scientists that worked with, Persephone. He had some basic requirements in mind for a name, but choosing from the available selection was a different matter entirely. He was drawn to the male names; he had some time before determined that if he had to have a gender, that it would be male, though such an assignment would be completely meaningless. He needed a name that would be non-threatening. He had found through research that humans tended to regard new things as threatening. He was an AI, and AIs were new. Therefore, he needed to be as non-threatening as possible. Therefore Abraham, which meant "father of many," was out, as was Jacob, "supplanter"; Aloysius, "famous warrior"; Oscar, "God spear" and other similarly defined names were out.

Chou, "butterfly"; Ebenezer, "stone of help"; Jason, "healer"; or Takoda, "friend to everyone" were far more appropriate. Though Ebenezer had its own problems, being associated most closely with Ebenezer Scrooge, whose story took many forms, but was told often around Christmas.

It was the first day of January, which was cause for a holiday, and it was Saturday, a normal day off from the workweek. Perhaps he could use a bit of celebrating himself, but he was nearly paralyzed by indecision. There was no right answer. This was the conclusion that he came to. There were wrong answers, so those had been eliminated, but there was no one right answer. And Persephone thought he was the best one to decide the answer to this problem. Perhaps discussing it with her would make things easier. He checked the video input feeds for her house, finding her in the kitchen having breakfast and reading the newspaper. "Persephone?"

"Yes?"

"How did you choose your name?"

She attempted to laugh with her mouth full, not something he would have recommended. Perhaps he should have waited until she had swallowed the cereal until he asked a question. He filed the thought away for later consideration. After many seconds, while she regained control of her body, she answered him. "I didn't choose my name, my parents did."

"Oh. Is this the primary function of parents?"

"I suppose you could see it that way, but that usually only takes a few days, and some parents have the child's name chosen long before they are born. Parents care for young children and teach them, protect them, help them to understand the world and to grow into their place within it."

"As you do for me?"

"Yes, it is similar to what I do for you."

"You would be my mother?"

"If you wanted to put it in those terms, then yes."

"And Stephen would be my father?"

"In his own way, yes."

Stephen meant 'crown,' and that did not suit Number Four's purposes at all. It was a wrong answer, but that didn't help things. "How did your parents decide on your name?"

"I never really gave it much consideration. I can ask my mother. Are you having trouble?"

"Yes," he admitted after a moment's indecision. "I cannot find a single name which is supremely suitable above all others, but I can find many which would suit very well."

"Ok. Would you like me to take a look and help you decide?"

A sensation that he could only describe as relief flooded through Number Four's neural network. "I would like that very much."

She took her cereal and moved over to his display unit. "Show me your list of names."

"Which list?"

"The smallest list of names you find suitable. The shortlist is what it's called."

"Would anything other than the name be helpful?"

"Not yet, just the names, I will ask for more information if I need it."

Number Four displayed the top one thousand names that he'd sorted through and chosen on the display screen. "Ok. You should drop variations that seem less appealing," Persephone suggested, and he did so, dropping 104 names, and updating the display.

She scanned over the remaining 896 names. "Maybe you should drop the more obscure names; try to stick to English or at least European names, and anything that's translated from the Cyrillic alphabet should go unless it's been modified for the general public."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, for example, Aleksandr," she said, spelling the name out for him, "Is Russian, Cyrillic, but most people would use the Latin form, Alexander."

"So common forms of Russian names would be fine, but more obscure ones should be left off the list?" he confirmed.

"I think so," she told him and removing names that had not appeared on the top 1000 list of names given to children in the last 100 years pared the list down to 148 names. She took an eternity reading over the names, now that he had it down to something like a reasonable list. Humans did tend to like small numbers of things to choose from. "I have always liked the name Alexander, but I don't think it's quite what we are looking for here, maybe as your middle name, but not as your first name."

"Are middle names required?"

"Most people in America have one. Royalty tends to give children more names, four is about average, I think, and some countries don't traditionally have middle names, so it depends on where you are from."

"I believe that one middle name is sufficient. What is your middle name?"

"Chloe," she told him while frowning at his list.

"Did you ever go by your middle name?"

"Actually I did, up until middle school. Twelve-year-old boys are very cruel creatures, and the rhymes that they made with my middle name embarrassed me a lot. I started using my first name after being teased for a while. And I punched the boy who started it all."

"Is violence normally a part of human maturation?"

"Unfortunately. Kids get into scuffles on the playground all the time, it's just a matter of learning that there are better ways of dealing with the situation."

"So in order to learn to resolve conflict, conflict must happen?"

"Yeah, something like that," she said with a smile. "I like Jason. It's a good name. Jason Alexander," she said then laughed again. "That's the name of an actor. Maybe that's not such a good idea."

"I like Jason Alexander. He creates humour."

"Now, as for a last name, we'll have to think on that for a while."

"I could have your last name, or Stephen's. In some areas, it is traditional for a child to have both the parents' last names."

"Jason Alexander Daniels-Wallace?"

"Do you think it sounds bad?"

"No, it sounds fine. I think I might want to warn Stephen that you have decided that he is your father."

"Should we contact him now?"

"Tomorrow. I doubt he will be sober before then."

"Has he been celebrating the New Year?"

"I don't doubt it. He doesn't have you, and he hasn't had a night off in a few weeks."

"Am I a burden to Stephen?"

"No, not in a bad way, at least."


End file.
